Monday, August 27, 2012

Morsi appoints Christian, woman as assistants

Egypt's Islamist President Mohamed Morsi on Monday
apppointed a Coptic Christian intellectual and a woman university professor as
presidential assistants, his spokesman Yasser Ali announced.

Samir Morcos, a liberal Coptic writer engaged in the
dialogue between Islam and Christianity, has been

named "assistant for
democratic transition", Ali said.

Pakinam al-Sharkawi, a political sciences professor at Cairo
university, was appointed "assistant for political affairs," he
added.

The president also chose two assistants from the Islamist
camp.

Emad Abdel Ghafour, the leader of the ultra-conservative
Al-Nur Salafist party, was named "assistant in charge of relations with
civil society" while Essam al-Haddad from the Muslim Brotherhoood's
Freedom and Justice Party becomes assistant for "external relations and
international cooperation."

Morsi, who was fielded for the presidential elections by the
Freedom and Justice Party, had pledged during his campaign to include Copts in
his administration.

But the Coptic community, which represents 14 percent of
Egypt's 82 million people, was unhappy over the composition of the country's
new cabinet which was sworn in in early August and includes only two women, one
of them a Copt.

Sharkawi, who wears the veil despite not being affiliated
with any Islamist party, told the independent Al-Masri al-Youm newspaper on
Monday that the Muslim Brotherhood is an "expression of a moderate
Islam."

The Salafist party Al-Nur had surprised everyone by wining
nearly 20 percent of the seats in multi-phase parliamentary elections that
concluded earlier this year.

Haddad is a member of the Freedom and Justice Party which
had won most seats in the legislative polls.

These four assistants, who are destined to be close
associates of the president, are part of a broader group of 17 people chosen to
become "presidential advisers."

Morsi, who took office on June 30, is the first president of
Egypt to come from an Islamist camp and also the first civilian head of state
since the overthrow of the monarchy in 1952.

He won the first presidential election since the fall of
Hosni Mubarak in February 2011 with a short margin in the second round after
clashing with Ahmed Shafiq, the last premier of the deposed regime.

On August 12, Morsi significantly strengthened his powers by
retiring veteran Defence Minister Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi and scrapping a
constitutional document that gave the military legislative and other powers.